I Should Have Known
by morganastark221b
Summary: It's the morning of the first Quidditch match for the House Cup, and katie Bell feels like she's going to get sick. Or faint. Or possibly both. Meanwhile, Oliver Wood is trying to focus on the game ahead, and not think of a certain girl. As the match begins, and the team rise into the air, no-one knows just how much can change in one game. They're about to find out. Multi-chapter.
1. Chapter 1

**Notes: okay, so I've changed a few minor details for this to work more soundly. At the start of the story, Katie Bell is in 6****th**** year, while Oliver Wood is in 7****th****.** **It's going to be a multi-chapter, not with too many, though, as I think each will be a bit long. **_Italics mean internal dialogue._ **Err, unfortunately I don't own Harry Potter. I hope you like my story, it's my first try at a fan fic, (hopefully) enjoy reading!**

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Katie.

When I first woke up that morning, my head spun and it took me a few moments to fully get a handle on where I was. For a minute, I thought I was at home; I thought I'd turn over and see the view of the hills and glades surrounding our house through my little window. I imagined my mum calling from downstairs for me to get up, and I smiled to myself before turning over.

* * *

I opened my eyes and abruptly remembered where I was. _Ahh_. Of course on any other morning I would laugh at myself and my silly imagination, get up and start my day quite happily. Not today, as, with the knowledge of where I was came back to me (Hogwarts dorm room), the fact that today was D-day came back, too. I moaned. Alicia, who was, of course, dressed and doing stretches by the door already, heard and quipped "Come on Katie, one foot in front of the other," I turned over in bed and raised an eyebrow at her. She smiled cheekily at me, "Well, when you finally get out of bed, that is." I jokingly glared at her, and then reached over to my bed-side table to get my wand- "I'll tell you exactly where my foot's going!" She laughed then dodged around the side of the open doorway, and in a sing-song voice said, "Right-oh, Katie, I'll be seeing you, got to go, meeting everyone down at breakfast," and was gone. I sighed, and lay back, looking up at the ceiling. _Right, come on Katie. Come on, just get up. Get up. GET UP._ Quick as a flash, I pushed the bedclothes away from me, swung my legs out of bed, and stood up. _That wasn't too bad, now, was it?_

* * *

For years, I'd been hiding the true extent of my stage fright from my friends. Every time a major match came up, I'd feel increasingly horrible, to the point of nausea, until we left the ground, and began the game. Then, I was fine, I was able to just let go, and focus entirely on the play. Okay, so it wasn't exactly singing or acting that we were doing, but it was still bloody scary to think of performing in front of a crowd of people, equal parts baying for your blood and cheering for your victory. Sure, Alicia and Angelina knew that I got a bit freaked before some of the major games and that perhaps it was a little harder for me to get up on those mornings, but they never knew about the complete and utter fear that overcame me. Now, it was the first major match of the season, and I already felt like I had last year, before the final, when I'd gotten sick in the bathrooms before going onto the pitch. Ugh! I really needed to get a hold of myself.

* * *

Getting dressed, I looked over to where Angelina was still asleep, and admired her ability to just block it all out. Leanne and Jennifer, the other two girls in our dorm, had left for breakfast already, and I was sure Alicia had probably been up ages before them. In fact, knowing her, she'd probably gone for a jog, come back to have a shower and get changed, then woken me up, before going down to breakfast. Angelina, on the other hand, was one of those people (or perhaps the only one, I've never actually met anyone quite like her before), who goes to sleep at six in the evening the night before a match, then sleeps 'till the last possible moment before getting up, showering and dressing, and walking onto the pitch, ready to go. She was the exact same with tests. Seeing as the match started at 12 today, I reckoned that she'd be up around 11.30, maybe 11.35 if she was feeling especially sleepy. God save anyone that might wake her before 11.30. That was a lesson very quickly learned by me and Alicia in the beginning.

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I went over to the window, and poured myself a big glass of water from the jug that always stood there. Looking out at the relatively sunny day, and thinking about anything but qui-the game, I made myself drink the whole glass, and then made my way down the stairs, and through the common room. The cheers of encouragement as I left made my stomach do an awkward little flip, and I prayed to anyone who'd listen that there wouldn't be a recurrence of last year's final. When I got to the great hall, I quickly found a seat in-between Alicia and Wood. I smiled, hopefully as realistically as possible, as everyone said hello, and the whole Gryffindor table gave a whoop, something I knew they'd been doing the whole morning as different members of the team arrived. Alicia squeezed my hand under the table, and I gave her a genuine smile. Perhaps I wasn't completely right in thinking my friends didn't realise the full extent of my – whatever the hell this was. I started to butter some toast, about the only thing I thought I could stomach, and quickly got engrossed in the excited talk of my team-mates and our friends . . .

* * *

Fred and George were joking around, as always, trying to get everyone to buy some of their latest merchandise. It was some kind of day-dream potion, and sounded a bit dodgy so I steered clear. Harry and his friends Hermione and Ron, the twin's younger brother, were chatting animatedly about the new defence against the dark arts teacher. Wood, I noticed, was the only one apart from me not actually taking part in the chatter. We sat side by side in companionable silence, me nibbling my toast, him pushing around some eggs and rashers around on his plate. Both aware of the other, we just listened to everyone, and I started to feel a little calmer, his quiet thinking self like a rock beside me. I always felt calm around Wood, even when he was in full-on pep talk mode, or yelling at us for doing something wrong. It just felt right to be around him.

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**What did you think? I have most of the next chapter planned out, so I should be uploading that in the next couple of days. It'll be from Oliver's perspective, which should be interesting . . . Reviews are always appreciated, S.**


	2. Chapter 2

**I just want to say thanks so much to those who have favourited, folowed or even read my story so far. I hope you like this chapter as much as the last one, although I feel like I'm still getting the hang of Oliver. Oh, I don't own harry potter. Okay, so chapter two . . . **

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Oliver

When Katie arrived at the great hall, she sat between me and Alicia, something that made my heart beat faster, especially when she reached for some butter for her toast, and her arm brushed my hand. _Okay, come on, get a grip Oliver._ For a while now, I'd been thinking about Katie more often than needed, almost since the beginning of the year, when we all greeted each other after the summer, and something just clicked when I saw her. I tried not to think about it, tried to focus on Quidditch and my classes, this was the most important year for me, I needed good results and a good history of Quidditch to get where I wanted to go, and thinking about Katie and our relationship, or lack thereof, wasn't going to help me.

But, the events of the previous night kept popping into my head, and I sat, letting the team think I was thinking about the game ahead, and mulled it over . . .

* * *

It was getting late; most of the younger years had gone to bed already. The team was up, apart from Angelina who'd fallen asleep with her head on George's lap, and no one was brave enough to wake her, including George, although I had a funny feeling he was okay with her being there. We sat around one of the fires, all sitting comfortably in the soft couches and seats that made a semi-circle around it, or sitting on the floor on cushions. Some of our friends were there, too, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley sat with Harry on the floor, and Lee Jordan sat between Katie and Fred. I was sitting in one of the comfy armchairs, preoccupied in my thoughts of the match tomorrow, when I heard Katie laugh. I looked over, only to see Lee smiling as Katie apparently laughed at something he'd just said. I scowled at him, and then back at the fire. _Who was he to make her laugh? _Slightly shocked at the anger and, I had to admit it, jealousy that had suddenly consumed me, I tried to shake it off, telling myself that Lee was my friend, too, and who was _I_ to be so overly protective over someone I swore I'd forget about in that way, anyway? It nearly worked, until a few minutes later when Katie got up, saying she was off to bed, and then Lee and Fred followed, going up the other staircase, yawning as they went. I watched Katie leave, seeing as she slowly wound her way in-between all the chairs and tables, untying her hair from her pony tail as she went, leaning her head to the side and loosely running her fingers through her hair with one of her hands, and disappearing up the stairs. I turned back around, and saw Alicia looking back at me, a knowing smile on her lips. I had no come back, I'd been caught, and now Alicia's smirk proved that she knew where my head had been as I watched Katie leave. I felt my cheeks go red, and looked back into the fire again, probably sealing my fate. Alicia wouldn't say anything, though, would she? _Oh god, I bloody hope not. _Okay, I needed to figure out a way to stop looking at Katie so much, and thinking about her. All of the time. _Merlin._

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Harry and his two friends went off to bed, and soon it was just me, Alicia, George and Angelina around the fire. There were only a few more groups dotted around the room, now, too, mostly sixth years, but a few seventh years. There emitted a sudden bang from the bag of one of the two fifth years still up, and he looked around guiltily at all of the older students startled out of their soft conversations, and in some cases, naps. "Who woke me?!" Angelina said, before opening her eyes and rising from George's lap. She looked around at the disturbed calm of the common room, her eyes narrowing as they landed on the fifth years. Even guiltier looking than before, the pair gathered their things and left, cheeks red, bag emitting a purple smoke. Angelina glared at them, and then turned back around to us, smiling now that she'd scared off her prey. George took up a conversation with me about an essay he had to do for Snape, as I tried to recall doing it the previous year; I heard snippets of Angelina and Alicia's half-whispered conversation. "I don't know, Ange, I mean, do you really think so?" "Well, duh, it's obvious, isn't it? He totally likes you." I strained my ears to catch exactly who they were talking about, as far as I could tell, Alicia hadn't mentioned me yet. I struggled with replying to George and listening to them, too. "Well, I remember an essay on the effects of Felix Felicis, but not on"- "Look, it's totally clear; he's been flirting with K all night, right? So, what does that mean?" "Ugh, that he likes Katie?" I felt my cheeks heat up slightly, but started to think that they were talking about Lee. "Look, how about I have a look for it tomorrow, that okay? If I've done it, it's got to be around the dorm somewhere"- I barely listened as George thanked me, focusing again on – "No, it means he likes you, and is trying to cover it up." Angelina explained as if she was talking to a small child, Alicia still looked sceptical. To be honest, I thought they were giving guys in general too much credit, I doubted Lee would've thought of that. "Well, I hope you're wrong, I don't want to deal with anything like that, especially so soon after Ian." Ian, I knew from previous snippets of conversations, had been Alicia's summer, and muggle, romance. She'd dumped him at the beginning of school, thinking it'd be too hard to keep up a long distance relationship, especially seeing as he didn't know about her magic. As Angelina put a consoling hand on her arm, I brought myself back to what George was saying, confident that they weren't talking about anything that could affect me.

* * *

"I'm sorry, what?" George looked at me, and rolled his eyes. "I said did you hear about Slytherin's chaser problem?" I nodded, of course I'd heard about it. I knew everything there was to know about Quidditch goings on in Hogwarts. Adrian Pucey had injured himself just a few days ago, in some stupid fight with a fourth year. He wouldn't be able to play tomorrow, and the Slytherins had had a hard time finding a good enough replacement for him, finally settling on some obscure third year. Apparently McGonagall had had a huge fight with Snape over the whole fiasco, seeing as Flint wanted to cancel the match, of course. But, as Pucey wasn't sick, he'd gotten himself into trouble, there weren't really any grounds on which to base the cancellation, and McGonagall won. "Well, what do you think? I reckon our chances are much better, now. We're going to scrape the floor with them." I made a non-committal noise in the back of my throat, knowing not to speak too soon.

* * *

My thoughts quickly turned back to Katie. I started to think about all of the possibilities, the 'what ifs' . . . Then I remembered Lee Jordan. Instead of seeing me with my arm around her, I saw him. _Ugh_. Could I do it? Could I watch her go out with someone else? Even if it wasn't Lee . . . I realised that I was scowling at the fire again, my fists balling on the arm rests of my chair. I should just ask her out. Yeah, I'd just ask her out. But what about school? What about Quidditch? What if when I left in the summer, Katie decided it was just best to not even bother with the long-distance relationship, like Alicia? I laughed at myself internally. _That's presuming we'd make it to the summer. _And then, an even more depressing thought, _who says she'd even say yes to going out with you in the first place? She probably doesn't even like you that way at all . . . _We watched the fire for a while, me sinking into more and more depressing thoughts, and then Alicia and Angelina rose, both muttering "Night," before heading off to bed. Angelina yawned loudly, ruffling George's hair on the way past. I smirked at the bemused look on his face, and when they'd gone up the stairs, I said, "So, are you two going out, then?" George turned to me, with a definite look of a man out of his depth, and said, "No idea, mate. None whatsoever." I smiled and turned back to the dying embers in the grate. Maybe things could be worse.

* * *

At breakfast, I was torn out of my revere as I heard Katie gasp beside me, dropping her toast. I looked around, and asked "are you okay?"

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**What do you think? I know this was even longer than the last, it was just too awkward to split into two chapters, as most of it are his memories, I hope that was okay. Please tell me if you'd rather I used much shorter chapter lengths. My future ones should be a bit shorter, anyway. I promise to get going with the story more next time, I just felt like this chapter was needed. Reviews are always apreciated, S.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Thanks to everyone who's followed and faved so far, it means a lot. I don't own Harry Potter, I think sometimes I'd rather be in it than own it, but anyway . . . on to chapter 3.**

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Katie

I was smiling at Alicia and Fred when it happened. They were arm wrestling, and everyone was cheering, bets were being yelled out, and the hope of a quiet breakfast was thrown out the window. I looked around, suddenly getting the weird feeling of being watched. Behind Alicia's shoulder, for a second I thought I saw something. It was like a heat wave, or some kind of distortion in the air. Then something else caught my attention, and when I looked back around, whatever it was was gone, if it had even been there in the first place. I looked back around as a chorus of yells broke out "Cheat!" It looked like Leanne had helped Alicia out a little, by jinxing Fred. I reached out, and grabbed my glass of water out of harm's way as Alicia moved her arm back to avoid Fred's hands, which were suddenly shaking exaggeratedly. I laughed, and lifted the glass, downing it in one. Better that than it being spilled everywhere, and anyway, water always helped my stomach.

* * *

As I looked around at my friends again, however, my head started to feel really weird and dizzy, and I put down the remainder of my toast, thinking maybe it was better if I just left breakfast out today. I quickly drew a breath as a spike of pain shot through my head, and then was gone. _Well, that was new_. "Are you okay?" something I expected to hear from Alicia, but instead heard from Oliver, on my other side. I looked up, and nodded, touched at the genuine concern in his face. "Yup, I'm totally fine, completely fine. Just, err, a slight headache. 'T's gone now." I tried to smile brightly, but could tell he wasn't buying it. "Uh-huh. Well, if you're feeling really bad, just say so straight away. Better we lose you for a game than the whole season." I nodded again, knowing that this was serious for Wood, he was in his seventh year, and this was his last chance at a win of the house cup. I looked him straight in the eyes, trying to show that I understood the importance of what he'd just said. "Honestly, I'm fine, Oliver. I just need to get out on the pitch, get flying, and I'll be fine." I smiled softly at him then, watching him react slightly when I'd used his first name, then accept what I'd said to him with a contented nod, saying, "I know what you mean, I get that sometimes, too, before a big match. Then, as soon as I'm in the air,"- we both wistfully looked down at our plates, I finished the sentence- "everything is fine again." We looked up, and smiled at one another again. I felt almost giddy with all of this smiling, pre-game jitters and lack of food must've gone to my head. Then Fred said, "Right, this is it lads and ladies, best be off." Everyone rose from their seats, our friends sending us good lucks as we left, we wouldn't see them now 'til after the game. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Oliver as he seemed to mentally steel himself from his thoughts, and get into game mode, his back straightening, head lifting, eyebrows drawing together and hands clenching and un-clenching at his sides. By the time we left the great hall, Oliver Wood looked like a lean, mean, Quidditch machine, all he needed now was his broom. I certainly wouldn't like to be on the opposing team today, anyway, that's for sure.

* * *

We were getting changed and I felt like at any moment I might get sick all over Angelina, who had arrived approx. three minutes before, and was still changed before me, sitting on the bench to my right. My head felt woozy, on top of my stomach roiling around, which was really weird as usually my head was totally fine. I quickly shrugged off the thought that my head swirling around was possibly completely unrelated to the jittery stomach thing, telling myself everything would be fine, as soon as we were off the ground. Oh, the naivety of me. "Hey, how're you doing?" Angelina seemed to have abandoned her bored inspection of her nails, noticing my wince as another spurt of pain split through my head for a second, and then was gone. "Oh, yeah, I'm okay. Slight headache, that's all." I sat down beside her and started to pull on my boots. "Oh, that doesn't happen usually, does it?" As she looked at me with concern I realised I'd really underestimated both of my friend's powers of observation and their concern for my welfare. I decided to be honest. "Yeah, well. No, actually, normally it's just a sick feeling in my stomach, but today every now and then I've been getting these bursts of pain in my head, and I've been finding it hard to concentrate, too, seeing as my mind feels a bit dizzy every now and then." Angelina nodded, and then said, "I think I've got something for that." I smiled to myself as Angelina walked over to her locker, of course she'd have something for me, always practical, no-nonsense. She turned back to me, brandishing a little cardboard package. I looked around guiltily, I wasn't completely sure on the protocol on taking meds right before a match. The girl's changing rooms were empty, Alicia having already left to wait outside. "It's alright, they're muggle. Only for the pain, won't help your game apart from hopefully letting you concentrate, completely on the record." I still looked up at her sceptically. She sighed, knowing I wouldn't take them without further encouragement. "Okay, look, I had to ask McGonagall about them last year, it was the Hufflepuff match and, err, my time of the month, so I asked if it'd be ok for me to take my usual potion for the pain, and she gave me these. She gave them to me Katie! They're completely legit muggle medicine for pain, and take my word for it, they work." She brandished them in front of my nose, and I grabbed them. "Thanks, Ange, you're an ang"- "Don't even think about saying it!" I laughed at her mock anger at the nearly mentioned banned nick name, and popped the required two of the little white pills out of their seals, and into my mouth, downing some water from a canister to wash them down.

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**A bit of a shorter chapter this time, any thoughts? Btw, I hope to get the next chapter to you a little sooner than this, reviews are always appreciated, S.**


	4. Chapter 4

**So, I imagine anyone who was interested in this story has probably forgotten all about it by now, which is completely my fault so, sorry about that. I think we all know I don't own Harry Potter. Anyway, here goes nothing . . .**

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Oliver

We were barely ten minutes in and already in the lead, my team performing better than they'd done so far in the practices running up to this first match of the tournament. It was 20-nill, and looked like it was about to rise to 30. I watched with pride as they sped around in the air, keeping the quaffle up the other end of the pitch. My eyes flitted from player to player, every now and then finding Harry off in some obscure corner, his search for the snitch spurred on today as the excitement of it all gripped him.

* * *

I found myself increasingly thinking of Katie, and noticed that I kept finding her in the swarm of flying bodies, more than the others, just to see how she was doing. _Okay, get a grip. This is why you don't form attachments to members of the team, you end up thinking of them too much, and then getting distracted, and then- _I whipped my head around, dragging my watching eyes away from the chaser, as I realised I'd actually missed out on something the crowd had noticed. Harry and the Malfoy git were speeding towards the ground; clearly they had the snitch in sight. Okay, I had to get focused – _ignore Harry until he's caught the snitch, focus on the game – where's the quaffle? _I looked around, and saw Alicia with it, she was trying to dodge one of the Slytherin chasers and pass to Angelina. But where was Katie? I knew the manoeuvre they were trying to play, knew they needed Katie to complete the piggy in the middle type trick. I looked around; worry now seeping in to my mind. I couldn't find her, and then – George was waving at me, frantically trying to get my attention. He was really high up, over to the right. I heard the crowd gasp, clearly something very tense was happening with the two seekers, but I made myself focus on the problem at hand. Because there was definitely a problem. I followed George's gesturing hands and saw Katie, tears streaming down her face, one hand up to hold her head. The look of utter pain on her face was enough to make my stomach twist – what was going on? And then two things happened almost simultaneously. The crowd roared, booing and cheering with an intensity that hurt my ear drums and Katie looked at me straight in the eyes, and then fell backwards off of her broom.

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**I hope it's not too dramatic, all will be explained, I promise. The next few chapters will be pretty short, it just works better. I hope you like it, S.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey, is this? ... Is this what I think it is? Am I hallucinating?! No! Two chapters uploaded in one night! (lets just gloss over the fact that these two short chapters were meant to be on big one . . .) Anyhoo, so I don't own Harry Potter, and I hope you enjoy . . .**

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Katie

Wood didn't go on too long in his pep talk, he looked too full of pent-up energy; something I was grateful for; the pills Angelina had given me were starting to take effect on the pain, but my stomach jumped at every loud cheer from outside. We headed out of the changing rooms, some of the team whooping with the crowd as we walked out into the sunshine. Alicia put her hand on my shoulder and squeezed as I nearly stumbled. She wasn't much of a 'whooper', either. The conditions, I noticed, were perfect. The sun was out, but not in a glaring way. There was a light breeze, nothing too strong. The fine weather had brought an even bigger crowd to this first match of the season, drawing out those who ordinarily wouldn't turn up. The stadium was almost packed. I felt my knees nearly give way as I looked up at them all. _Okay. Come on, pull yourself together Katie. This is ridiculous, you know you're going to forget all about them as soon as you've left the ground anyway, try to forget about them now. _I breathed deeply through my nose, feeling the air fill my lungs. It felt good, the crisp air was refreshing, and helped me focus. Okay, I could do this. I turned around to see as Wood and Flint shook hands, emotionless eyes meeting ones full of loathing. I'm sure the feeling was mutual, Wood just had better manners. Then, Madame Hooch's whistle blew and we were off, shooting into the air and moving into position. Suddenly, when the quaffle was released, the crowd disappeared, their noise falling away to some background place in my mind, and for the first time that morning, I felt free. The squirming my stomach had plagued me with right up until a second ago had stopped like it had been fine all along, and I sped forward, ready to take the quaffle from Angelina for our first play.

* * *

It was around ten minutes in that the pain in my head, which had almost completely left me by then, returned tenfold. It was so bad that I stopped flying, completely distracted by the apparent knives that were slicing through my skull, "Oi!" I heard one of the twins yell, which brought me back to reality slightly. "Oi, Katie, what's up?" It was George yelling as he sped past, swinging at a bludger that was about to hit me. I hadn't even noticed, and didn't bother to manoeuvre my broom out of the way before he hit it. It shot away towards a member of the Slytherin team; I didn't care enough to notice which. How could anyone care about such trivial things when the _pain. _"Ugh," I vaguely heard myself groan, as if I was another person looking on, I looked up as George turned around, an enquiring glance turned to worry as he saw the look on my face. "What's wrong Katie? You need a time out or something?" I wouldn't open my mouth to answer just in case I screamed by mistake. Instead I sucked in a huge breath, gasping and feeling wet dripping down my face and off my chin. _Ah, _I thought, _that makes sense, must be all the blood from those knives. _I reached up a hand to touch my face, not really taking any notice as my broom dropped a few feet as I moved around, looking at my fingers. _Oh._ I was crying. Again, I was only vaguely aware of George beside me, getting increasingly worried, "Okay, hey, Katie, don't move again, alright? I'm right beside you, everything's going to be alright, don't worry." I heard a weird, animal whimpering noise come out of my mouth as I struggled to hold onto reality with this on-going _pain_ in my head. I looked up at George, and saw that he was trying to frantically indicate to Wood that we needed a time-out, but everyone was distracted as something seemed to be happening with Harry and the slimy little git of a seeker from Slytherin. It looked like one of them was going to catch the snitch. George abandoned signalling and started full-on yelling, waving like a maniac, reluctantly flying slightly away from me, and closer to the posts. Somehow over the crowd's noise Wood heard him, or maybe he just sensed that something was wrong, but either way he looked up at George, and then, as George gestured, at me. Our eyes met just as I supposed someone caught the snitch, as the whole stadium erupted in cheers, and I felt my head split open in the most harsh, white pain yet. I couldn't hold onto consciousness any more, the last thing I saw was the look of worry turn to one of downright fear in Oliver's eyes as I fell backwards into darkness.

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**Ooh! again, I'm not sure about it, it's a bit too angsty for my tastes, but it just wouldn't write any other way. I hope you liked it, reviews are always appreciated (I don't really know what I'm doing, but it's nice to see that people like reading it :] ) S**


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